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About Tiberius Claudius Thrasyllus

Thrasyllus of Mendes, whose full name was Tiberius Claudius Thrasyllus (flourished late 1st century BCE & 1st century, died 36 CE, Greek: Τιβέριος Κλαύδιος Θράσυλλος or Θράσυλλος Μενδήσιος), was an Egyptian Greek grammarian and literary commentator from Mendes, Egypt.

Although he is often mentioned in secondary sources as coming from Alexandria (Oxford Classical Dictionary), no primary source confirms this origin. It is possible that Tiberius Claudius Thrasyllus, the astrologer of Tiberius who is famously mentioned in Tacitus (Annals of Rome) and Suetonius (Lives of the Caesars) was not the same individual as Thrasyllus of Mendes.

Although Thrasyllus of Mendes was an Alexandrian grammarian and editor of Plato and Democritus, Tiberius Claudius Thrasyllus is most well known as the astrologer of the Roman Emperor Tiberius. Thrasyllus encountered the future Emperor, putative heir to the first Roman Emperor Augustus, on the Greek island of Rhodes, where Tiberius had been voluntarily exiled. Thrasyllus predicted that Tiberius would soon be recalled to Rome and officially named Augustus' successor, and remained close to him during the intervening years and the years of his reign, receiving the valuable gift of Roman citizenship for himself and his wife Aka II of Commagene, who might have been either a granddaughter or great-granddaughter of King Antiochus I Theos of Commagene, and therefore a Princess.

Tiberius’ daughter-in-law Livilla consulted him during her affair with Tiberius' chief minister Sejanus, and Thrasyllus persuaded Tiberius to leave Rome for Capri while clandestinely supporting Sejanus. Thrasyllus' son-in-law Naevius Sutorius Macro carried out the orders that destroyed Sejanus, whether with Thrasyllus’ knowledge is unclear. Thrasyllus remained on Capri with Tiberius advising him on his relationship with the various claimants to the succession, and favoring Tiberius’ great-nephew Caligula with whom his daughter Eunia was having a tempestuous affair. By giving a false prediction of Tiberius' longevity, the astrologer saved the lives of a number of noble Romans suspected falsely of plotting against the Emperor; believing Thrasyllus implicitly, Tiberius was confident that he would outlive any plotters, and so failed to act against them. Thrasyllus predeceased the Emperor, and did not live to see the realization of his prediction that Caligula would succeed.

Thrasyllus was the author of an astrological text titled Pinax (Table), which is lost, but has been summarized in later sources (CCAG [Catalogue of the Codices of the Greek Astrologers] 8/3: 99-101) which borrows from astrological notions found in Nechepso/Petosiris (see article on Hellenistic astrology) and Hermes Trismegistus, early pseudepigraphical sources of astrology. He is cited by Vettius Valens, Porphyry and Hephaistio.

With Aka II, Thrasyllus had two children: a son, who is usually thought to be Tiberius Claudius Balbilus, and a daughter Eunia, who married the Praetorian Prefect Naevius Sutorius Macro. Through his son, he would become the paternal grandfather of Claudia Capitolina, who would marry the Greek Prince from the Kingdom of Commagene called Gaius Julius Archelaus Antiochus Epiphanes. Through Capitolina, Thrasyllus would become great-grandfather to Prince Philopappos of Commagene and Princess Julia Balbilla of Commagene.

According to the Encyclopaedia Judaica, Thrasyllus wrote that the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt took place in 1690 BC. The sections include: Dudimose Ipuwer Papyrus Shiphrah

References

Thrasyllus

Thrasyllus was a famous astrologer and scholar who flourished in the early first century CE. He is mainly known as the personal astrologer to the Roman Emperor Tiberius, although he also arranged the works of Plato and Democritus, and may have played an influential role in the history of philosophy due to these editorial efforts.

He became a legendary figure in subsequent centuries due to his friendship and interactions with Tiberius, and his views on certain astrological techniques and concepts continued to be cited by astrologers for several centuries after his death.

The Life and Dating of Thrasyllus The Roman historians Tacitus, Seutonius and Cassius Dio indicate that Tiberius began consulting Thrasyllus during the former’s self-imposed exile on the island of Rhodes, which took place between 6 BCE and 2 CE. Based on this we know that Thrasyllus was already established as a practicing astrologer by the late 1st century BCE, and he began his role as astrologer to the future Emperor at least by the year 2 CE, when Tiberius left Rhodes.

The Roman historian Cassius Dio informs us that the Emperor Tiberius died the following spring after the death of Thrasyllus (Dio, Roman History, 58: 27). Since we know from other sources that Tiberius died in the year 37, this puts Thrasyllus’ death in the year 36 CE.

Full Name and Place of Origin At some point Thrasyllus attained Roman citizenship through the help of Tiberius. A Roman inscription records that his full name became Tiberius Claudius Thrasyllus (T8 in Tarrant).

There is a dispute over his place of origin. A number of secondary sources over the past century have said that Thrasyllus originated in Alexandria, although none of the extant testimonia seem to explicitly make this connection.

There are some fragments on the study of stones attributed to a Thrasyllus of Mendes (T11 in Tarrant), which was a city in northern Egypt, although it is not clear if this Thrasyllus is the same as the astrologer-philosopher. As Tarrant points out (Thrasyllan Platonism, pg. 7, fn. 11), Thrasyllus’ interests are known to have been wide enough that there isn’t necessarily any reason to think that he could not have been the author of a work on stones. If he was in the fact author of this work, then the astrologer’s name was originally Thrasyllus of Mendes, although he is referred to almost universally in later sources simply as Thrasyllus.

Father of Balbillus The historian Tacitus says that Thrasyllus had a son who predicted Nero’s reign (Tacitus, The Annals, 6: 22), and some scholars have inferred that this son was probably the astrologer Balbillus, who served as court astrologer to the Emperors Claudius, Nero and Vespasian. This connection between Thrasyllus and Balbillius was first argued by Conrad Cichorius in 1922 (Römische Studien, pgs. 390-398), and subsequently endorsed and explored by Frederick Cramer (Astrology in Roman Law, pg. 95), although more recent scholars such as Tarrant (Thrasyllan Platonism, pg. 10) and Beck (The Mysteries of Mithras, pg. 127, fn. 60) have taken a more cautious approach, choosing to suspend judgement on the issue.

I tend to side with those who argue that Balbillus probably was Thrasyllus’ son, based on Tacitus’ statement and the prominence of Balbillus during the reign of subsequent emperors. If we take this for granted, then Thrasyllus may have been the central figure in a family line of prominent astrologers that stretched from the 1st century BCE through the mid 2nd century CE (Cramer, Astrology in Roman Law, pg. 92ff).

Thrasyllus’ Astrological Work Thrasyllus is known to have written an astrological text titled Table (Pinax), which was dedicated to an unknown figure named Hierocles. Unfortunately this work did not survive into the present time, although we do possess a summary of it that gives us some idea as to its contents.

In the summary Thrasyllus only cites Hermes, Nechepso and Petosiris as sources.

Influence on the Astrological Tradition Thrasyllus is mentioned once by the 2nd century astrologer Vettius Valens within the context of a method for rectifying the degree of the ascendant (Valens, Anthology, 9, 11: 10). Valens says at the beginning of the chapter that the method was handed down by his predicessors, and then at the end of that chapter that Thrasyllus himself used the method. It seems likely that this brief chapter is simply a summary of a technique that Valens read in one of Thrasyllus’ works.

In the late 3rd century Porphyry cited Thrasyllus in chapter 24 of his Introduction to the Tetrabiblos for his views on the concept of “striking with a ray” (aktinobolia). This passage seems to have originally occurred within the context of a discussion about the length of life technique and the concept of “releasing” (aphesis).

Porphyry mentions Thrasyllus again in chapter 41 of his Introduction, grouping him together with Petosiris and other unnamed “elders” (πρεσβυτέρων) who advocated a system of bounds or terms (horia) that were different from the sets advocated by Ptolemy and Apollinarius. This seems to imply that Thrasyllus used the so-called Egyptian terms or bounds, which were probably popularized by the writings attributed to Petosiris.

In the 5th century Hephaistio of Thebes mentioned Thrasyllus twice in his Apotelesmatika, citing him for the view that Aries and Libra are not capable of hearing or seeing each other (Hephaistio, 2, 11 and 2, 23), despite the conventional doctrine that they can since they are both equinoxial signs.

These references seem to indicate that Thrasyllus’ astrological works had some circulation in the later tradition, at least through the 5th century. In some ways he seems to have been somewhat conventional, only citing Hermes, Nechepso and Petosiris in his treatise, and even being grouped together with Petosiris by Porphyry.

On the other hand, it seems that he was not entirely adverse to re-conceptualizing or sometimes even breaking with the tradition, for example in his treatment of hearing and seeing signs cited by Hephaistio, or perhaps even in his treatment of “striking with a ray” as cited by Porphyry. There Porphyry seems to contrast Thrasyllus’ view that striking with a ray can occur on either the right or left side of a planet with what may have been an earlier school of thought, where striking with a ray can only occur when a planet casts a ray towards a planet on its right side.

The picture that these meager fragments of Thrasyllus’ work provide us is of someone who was both a preserver of the tradition as well as an occasional innovator.

Influence as a Philosopher Aside from his work as an astrologer, Thrasyllus also has the reputation of being a semi-important figure in the history philosophy. According to the 3rd century biographer Diogenes Laertius, Thrasyllus is responsible for arranging the works of Plato and Democritus into sets of four, otherwise known as tetralogies (Laertius, Lives, book 9: 45 and book 3: 56-61).

Harold Tarrant wrote a book exploring Thrasyllus’ role in arranging the Platonic corpus, arguing that he was an important figure in shaping the way that the texts have been read over the past 2,000 years, as well as as a philosopher in his own right (Tarrant, Thrasyllan Platonism).

In Porphyry’s Life of Plotinus he quotes a passage from his teacher Longinus where Thrasyllus is mentioned together with a group of philosophers who wrote on Pythagorean and Platonic philosophical principles (Porphyry, On the Life of Plotinus: 20). This essentially matches Tarrant’s assessment of Thrasyllus as a Platonist with Pythagorean leanings.

Critical Editions The Greek text of the summary of Thrasyllus’ Table was originally edited in the CCAG:

Catalogus Codicum Astrologorum Graecorum, Vol. 8, Part 3, ed. Petrus Boudreaux, Lamertin, Brussels, 1912, pgs. 99-101. A complete collection of all known testimonia and fragments from Thrasyllus was published in an appendix to Harold Tarrant’s book on Thrasyllus’ influence on the philosophical tradition:

Harold Tarrant, Thrasyllan Platonism, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, 1993, pgs. 215-249. Note that the fragments and testimonia in this collection are left in Greek and Latin, untranslated.

Translations An English translation of the summary of Thrasyllus’ Table was originally published by Robert Schmidt in 1995: The Astrological Record of the Early Sages in Greek, trans. Robert Schmidt, ed. Robert Hand, The Golden Hind Press, Berkeley Springs, WV, 1995, pgs. 57-60. Schmidt published a revised translation of the same summary in 2009:

Author: Chris Brennan Originally published: March 8, 2012 | Last updated: March 8, 2012 Article notes: The article is currently incomplete, and is primarily acting as a placeholder until I have time to add the other sections. Cite this article: Chris Brennan, “Thrasyllus”, The Hellenistic Astrology Website, March 8, 2012, http://www.hellenisticastrology.com/astrologers/thrasyllus/